Every person is endowed with a unique, personal character from birth. A child can inherit certain traits from his parents, some show them to a greater extent, while others are completely different from any of the family members. But character is not the behavior of parents projected onto the child; it is a more complex mental phenomenon. The list of positive and negative qualities of a person is very long. In this article we will try to highlight the main character traits.
What is human character?
Translated from Greek, the word “character” means “distinctive feature, sign.” Depending on the type of their psychological organization, people find their soul mates, establish relationships, and build their entire lives. Human character is a unique set of mental characteristics, personality traits that play a decisive role in various aspects of a person’s life and are manifested through his activities. To understand the character of an individual, it is necessary to analyze his actions en masse. Judgments about morality can be very subjective, because not every person acts as his heart tells him. However, it is possible to identify individual stable character traits by studying behavior for a long time. If a person makes the same decision in different situations, draws similar conclusions and demonstrates a similar reaction, then this indicates that he has one or another trait. For example, if someone is responsible, then his behavior both at work and at home will meet this criterion. If a person is cheerful by nature, a one-time manifestation of sadness against the background of general positive behavior will not become a separate character trait.
What is it for?
Everyone can try to make their own psycho-portrait or study the behavior of a loved one. However, to obtain accurate and most reliable data, it is better to seek help from a specialist. To fully determine your personality characteristics, sign up for my personal consultation. Having such data, you can find the most suitable occupation, hobby, find out the degree of your openness and sociability, identify goals, and increase self-esteem.
Character Formation
The process of character formation begins in early childhood, in the child’s first social contacts with his parents. For example, excessive love and care can later become the key to a stable characteristic of a person’s psyche and make him dependent or spoiled. That is why many parents are especially attentive to instilling positive character traits in their children. They get pets so that the baby can feel what responsibility is, assign him to do small chores around the house, teach him to put away his toys and explain that not all desires and whims can be fulfilled. The next stage is kindergarten and school. The child already has the basic character traits, but at this stage they can still be corrected: you can wean the little personality off greed and help get rid of excessive shyness. In the future, as a rule, the formation and change of character traits are possible only when working with a psychologist.
How and at what stage the basic personal characteristics of a person are formed
Psychotherapists, doctors and psychologists agree that a person’s personality is established before the first 5 years of life. The child begins to separate himself from the outside world and identify his “I” already at 3 years old. This, by the way, is one of the main reasons why this age is called the most difficult. The child’s whims and those qualities that were previously not noticed in him appear. This is a completely natural process that all parents should be prepared for. Many mothers begin to fear that the child has stopped loving them, however, this is not so - the little person just finds his own “I” and tries to affirm it with all his might. Then the period of conflict with the outside world subsides and the child integrates into the environment with an already established character.
As for adults, everything is relatively clear here. As a person progresses through life, he strengthens his character and habits, making them more stable and permanent.
Character or temperament?
Very often these two concepts are confused with each other. Indeed, both character and temperament shape human behavior. But they have a fundamentally different nature. Character is a list of acquired mental properties, while temperament is of biological origin. Possessing the same temperament, people can have completely different characters. There are 4 types of temperament: an impetuous and unbalanced choleric person, a leisurely and imperturbable phlegmatic person, an easy-going and optimistic sanguine person and an emotionally vulnerable melancholic person. At the same time, temperament can restrain certain character traits, and vice versa, character can compensate for temperament. For example, a phlegmatic person with a good sense of humor will still be stingy in showing emotions, but this will not prevent him from demonstrating a sense of humor, laughing and having fun in the appropriate society.
Volitional characteristics
Let's touch on the main ones:
Purposefulness is a person’s focus on the chosen result of an activity. This property is divided into a strategic variety and a tactical one. The first is, in general, a person’s actions based on his moral positions, values and ideals. The second is the movement of the individual “step by step”, from one micro-goal to another until the result is achieved.
Initiative is a person’s focus on taking action. Usually precedes the beginning of a volitional act. Independent individuals have this property. Initiative is associated with independence.
Independence is a person’s voluntary and active attitude to make decisions in accordance with his principles and beliefs.
Will is not considered an innate quality , but is considered by psychology as a quality, the formation of which occurs on the basis of a person’s personal choice.
List of positive human qualities
The list of positive and negative qualities of a person is huge. Initially, all definitions regarding the nature and essence of a person, his behavior are subjective. Society has established certain norms that allow us to determine how positive or negative a particular personality trait or action is. However, there are the highest qualities of a person that demonstrate his virtue and good intentions. Their list looks like this:
- altruism;
- reverence for elders;
- kindness;
- fulfillment of promises;
- moral;
- responsibility;
- loyalty;
- perseverance;
- moderation;
- responsiveness;
- honesty;
- sincerity;
- selflessness and others.
These qualities, along with their derivatives, constitute the nature of the true beauty of a person's character. They are laid down in the family; in the process of upbringing, children copy the behavior of their parents, and therefore a well-educated person will have all these highest qualities.
Stupidity
Yes, no matter how rude it may sound, no one likes talking to a person who does not understand you due to his stupidity. After all, we initiate a conversation in order to find a response, support in our interlocutor, a kind of empathy, and when we don’t receive it, but see an empty look and batting eyelashes, we feel frustration. Therefore, try to avoid stupid people and strive to be smart and interesting yourself.
By the way, if you are interested in the practice of communications and would like to interact better with people, you can take our online program “Best Communication Techniques”. Having mastered 72 communication techniques, you will notice how your communication with your environment has become more effective and enjoyable.
Of course, this is not the entire list of repulsive qualities. Often, when you ask people about a person's worst qualities, they mention aggression, curiosity, cruelty, cowardice, etc. There may be something we haven't mentioned, so we'll be waiting for your additions in the comments, and friends, remember, the world loves good people.
Good luck!
List of negative human qualities
The list of positive and negative qualities of a person can take a long time to form, since there are a lot of them. Attributing to a person the presence of a negative character quality based solely on his action or behavior will be completely wrong. You can't put labels on someone; even the most well-mannered and polite people can actually believe that they are endowed with, say, greed or arrogance. However, if this behavior is a pattern, then the conclusion will be obvious. The list of negative traits, as well as positive ones, is huge. The most basic and common ones look like this:
- lack of will;
- irresponsibility;
- harmfulness;
- greed;
- malice;
- deceit;
- hypocrisy;
- hatred;
- selfishness;
- intolerance;
- greed and others.
The presence of such character traits in a person is not a diagnosis; they can and should be dealt with even in adult, conscious age, and correct behavior.
Narcissism (narcissism)
Narcissism is a quality in which a person concentrates on his personality everything that happens around him, believing that all benefits are created exclusively for his comfort. As a rule, such a person seems to “suck” energy, strength, emotions out of you, without giving anything in return, because this category of people is not capable of empathy and compassion.
Do you think people are born narcissists or made? The answer is obvious - they do, and this happens as a result of improper upbringing on the part of the parents, and here two cases have been identified:
- excessive love, often blind, exceptional praise, permissiveness, pampering, recognition of a child as “the best of all” can instill in him a feeling of superiority and the absence of the need to leave his comfort zone, which gives rise to the desire to create comfort and a favorable environment only around himself;
- the opposite situation, when the child does not receive attention, feels defective, insignificant and useless to anyone; he closes down, and then, in adulthood, he tries to get everything that he did not receive at an early age, grabs maximum attention, perceives himself in an exceptionally superlative degree.
Therefore, as parents, be careful and stick to the golden mean when building a relationship with your child, be sensitive and attentive. And we move on to the next quality.
Character traits that manifest themselves in relation to other people
We have compiled a list of positive and negative human qualities. Now we will talk about character traits that manifest themselves in relation to other people. The fact is that depending on in relation to whom or what a person performs an action or deed, a specific individual feature of him is revealed. In society, he can demonstrate the following qualities:
- communication skills;
- responsiveness;
- sensitivity to other people's moods;
- respect;
- arrogance;
- egocentrism;
- coarseness;
- isolation and others.
Of course, a lot depends on the conditions in which a person finds himself: even the most open and sociable person can experience problems communicating with a strict, closed and heartless person. But, as a rule, polite people endowed with positive qualities easily adapt to society and suppress their negative traits.
Professional specialization
Each of these properties is considered in accordance with professional significance. For example, driving is contraindicated for a person who is unable to distinguish colors (color blindness). A person with low numerical ability will not be hired as a leading economist.
It is also necessary to list the following personality qualities, without which mastering a profession will in principle be impossible:
- Properties of an individual-typological nature (endurance, physical strength, lability of the nervous system) - in other words, stress resistance.
- Analytical properties that allow you to acquire unique abilities over time. Example: “technical hearing” is the ability to understand the cause of a mechanism malfunction without instruments, only relying on experience.
- Attentiveness directly depends on a person’s interest and desire to have up-to-date information about reality and to adequately evaluate it.
- Psychomotor skills are the special properties and perceptions of a person that guide him when choosing a course of action to achieve his goals. It also includes the speed of analysis and the ability to quickly analyze a situation and make decisions. As practice shows, this skill can be trained well.
- Mnemonic qualities. Associated with memory. Professional memory is also freely trained.
- Imaginative features - the ability to imagine and complex thought processes
- Strong-willed qualities - they are not required for every profession, but they are always necessary to overcome difficulties in the process of work.
Character traits manifested in work
Building a person’s career directly depends on the qualities of his character. Even the most talented and gifted people can fail because they are not responsible enough for their work and their talent. By doing so, they only harm themselves and do not give themselves the opportunity to reach their full potential. Or, on the contrary, there are cases where the lack of talent was more than compensated for by special diligence in work. A responsible and careful person will always achieve success. Here is a list of the main character traits:
- hard work;
- responsibility;
- initiative;
- accuracy;
- sloppiness;
- laziness;
- negligence;
- passivity and others.
These two groups of character traits actively overlap with each other, since work activity and communication between people are inseparably linked.
Hypocrisy
Open expression of one’s position and thoughts for the sake of achieving humane goals is the antithesis of the definition of hypocrisy, i.e. hypocrisy serves as a kind of tool, saturated with lies and insincerity, to achieve selfish, devoid of morality results.
At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between behavior that is not devoid of insincerity in order to maintain a prosperous environment, and hypocrisy. If you don’t like a university professor, you must admit that it would be irrational to openly show this to him. Delicate treatment, good manners and respect have not been canceled, but ingratiation, praise of the teacher, obvious open emphasis on your favor and disposition - pure hypocrisy.
Some people believe that hypocrisy is more common today because there is more mercantile interest, the search for material gain. The issue of religious hypocrisy has also always been actively discussed. Do you think these discussions are correct? Leave your opinion in the comments.
Another repulsive quality is stinginess or greed.
Mentality, qualities of a Russian person
Mentality is a very subjective concept, and it is based on stereotypical thinking. However, it cannot be denied that certain traits are inherent in one or another nationality. Russian people are famous for their cordiality and hospitality, and cheerful disposition. The Russian soul throughout the world is considered mysterious and incomprehensible, since Russians are not distinguished by the rationality and logic of their actions, and are often influenced by mood. Another feature of the Russian people is sentimentality. A Russian person instantly adopts the feelings of another and is always ready to share emotions with him and lend a helping hand. It is impossible not to mention another trait - compassion. Historically, Russia has helped its neighbors at all borders of the country, and today only a heartless person will ignore the misfortune of another.
Exercises to determine your personal capabilities
- Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. To do this, you need to remember which actions cause you the most positive emotions. Write them down in a notebook, starting from the most significant to those that are least pleasant.
- The next step will be a reassessment of values. Rethink your life beliefs to understand which ones are strengths and which are disadvantages.
- Remember the people whose opinions are valuable to you. Why do you respect them? What traits do they have? Do you have these virtues?
- Remember the last time you were happy? What was happening at that moment? Why were you happy?
- After studying your answers, try to find similarities in them. Those features that will be repeated in most answers are your ideals, what you strive for.
- Determine if your beliefs match your real life.
- Study what is an advantage and what is a disadvantage in the area in which you live and work.
- Determine whether the environment is optimal for your personality development.
- Conduct a survey in which you ask people who know you what personality traits you have.
- Having received answers from loved ones, you should find all the common points in them. Make a list of character traits that most people find in you.
- Make a self-portrait. You will end up with a deep characterization of personal qualities.
- Make a list of things you need to do to improve your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
Deceit is the success of the false ego
A clear manifestation of one’s own insecurity, a desire to impress others, even if this means using a lie. A deceitful person comes up with false information, presenting it as reality. The consequences are very sad: distrust of others, loneliness, loss of work, because few forgive lies. If a person constantly lies, over time he himself will become entangled in lies and will certainly be exposed.
Often, a liar simply does not want to, does not know how to perceive reality, and deliberately creates a distorted image of himself, events and facts among others in order to achieve a selfish goal and prevent the negative consequences of his deed.
How to tell about yourself in an original way
According to statistical studies, about 90% of applicants, when talking about themselves at an interview, mention their responsibility, sociability and determination
It is clear that such qualities are unlikely to interest or draw the attention of the listener to them.
If you talk about general, common character traits that are undoubtedly positive, but everyone talks about them, it won’t hurt, but it won’t make you stand out from the general background of applicants.
You can take a different route: talk about rare qualities that match your character.
Better yet, provide examples of how these qualities were used, the positive role they played, or how they were viewed positively. By using this tactic, you have a chance to stand out and be remembered.
Remember that sometimes what is more important to an employer is not WHAT, but HOW you answer questions about personal qualities. Reasonable, logical, confident answers, as well as competent speech, are of great importance.
Demonstrate a positive attitude, the ability to respond appropriately to difficult or personal issues, the ability to find compromises and good solutions.
Successful interview! Moreover, now you know exactly what weaknesses you can point out at an interview and how to correctly talk about your shortcomings in order to make a favorable impression on the employer.
